The following abbreviations and terms are herewith defined, at least some of which are referred to within the following description and drawings of the present disclosure.    3GPP 3rd-Generation Partnership Project    AAA Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting    AGCH Access Grant Channel    AS Application Server    ASIC Application Specific Integrated Circuit    ATI Additional TBF Information    BLER Block Error Rate    BSS Base Station Subsystem    CDF Charging Data Function    CGF Charging Gateway Function    CDMA Code Division Multiple Access    CN Core Network    DSP Digital Signal Processor    GGSN Gateway GPRS Support Node    GMSC Gateway MSC    GPRS General Packet Radio Service    GSM Global System for Mobile Communications    GW Gateway    HARQ Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request    HPLMN Home Public Land Mobile Network    HSS Home Subscriber Server    IA Immediate Assignment    IE Information Element    IP Internet Protocol    IoT Internet of Things    IWF InterWorking Function    IWMSC InterWorking MSC    LLC Logical Link Control    LTE Long-Term Evolution    MAC Medium Access Control    M2M Machine-to-Machine    MME Mobile Management Entity    MS Mobile Station    MSC Mobile Switching Centre    MSID Mobile Station Identifier    MTC Machine-Type Communications    NAS Non-Access Stratum    PDP Packet Data Protocol    P-GW Packet-Gateway    PLMN Public Land Mobile Network    RACH Random Access Channel    RAN Radio Access Network    RLC Radio Link Control    RRC Radio Resource Control    SC Service Centre    SCS Services Capability Server    SGSN Serving GPRS Support Node    S-GW Serving Gateway    SM Session Management    SME Short Message Entity    SMS Short Message Service    SNDCP Sub Network Dependent Convergence Protocol    TBF Temporary Block Flow    TS Technical Specification    UDP User Datagram Protocol    UE User Equipment    VPLMN Visited Public Land Mobile Network    WCDMA Wideband Code Division Multiple Access    WiMAX Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access
Coverage Class: At any point in time a device belongs to a specific uplink/downlink coverage class which determines the total number of blind transmissions to be used when transmitting/receiving radio blocks. An uplink/downlink coverage class applicable at any point in time can differ between different logical channels. Upon initiating a system access a device determines the uplink/downlink coverage class applicable to the RACH/AGCH based on estimating the number of blind repetitions of a radio block needed by the BSS receiver/device receiver to experience a BLER (block error rate) of approximately 10%. The BSS determines the uplink/downlink coverage class to be used by a device on the device's assigned packet channel resources based on estimating the number of blind repetitions of a radio block needed to satisfy a target BLER and considering the number of HARQ retransmissions (of a radio block) that will, on average, result from using that target BLER.
Internet of Things (IoT) devices: The Internet of Things (IoT) is the network of physical objects or “things” embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and connectivity to enable objects to exchange data with the manufacturer, operator and/or other connected devices based on the infrastructure of the International Telecommunication Union's Global Standards Initiative. The Internet of Things allows objects to be sensed and controlled remotely across existing network infrastructure creating opportunities for more direct integration between the physical world and computer-based systems, and resulting in improved efficiency, accuracy and economic benefit. Each thing is uniquely identifiable through its embedded computing system but is able to interoperate within the existing Internet infrastructure. Experts estimate that the IoT will consist of almost 50 billion objects by 2020.
There will be a need for wireless communication systems to support Network Triggered Reporting, wherein cellular IoT devices (or any other type of wireless device) can periodically receive notifications (e.g., triggers) which indicate that the cellular IoT devices are to transmit certain information of interest (e.g., telemetry) to a processing node (e.g., a machine type communication (MTC) server, a services capability server (SCS)) reachable through the Internet Protocol (IP) network. When considering that a large portion of cellular IoT devices are expected to support a very simplified set of functions (e.g., only being able to report limited sets of telemetric information), it becomes apparent that delivering IP packets to such devices as the means for triggering the devices to transmit a report is unnecessarily demanding from both a signaling overhead and bandwidth requirements perspective.
For example, transmitting an IP packet to an IoT device to trigger the IoT device to transmit a report will involve the inclusion of the IP layer and, therefore, 40 octets of fixed overhead (i.e., for IPv6) from the IP layer alone. Factoring into this overhead the inclusion of optional IP header information and other layers (e.g., Radio Link Control (RLC)/Medium Access Control (MAC), Logical Link Control (LLC), Sub Network Dependent Convergence Protocol (SNDCP), User Datagram Protocol (UDP)) can push the total overhead up to a level approaching 100 octets, which is quite excessive considering that a few octets (or even less than 1 octet) of payload information (i.e., the trigger information) may be all that needs to be delivered to the application layer of the IoT device.
Accordingly, a more bandwidth and signaling efficient mechanism for triggering cellular IoT devices to transmit reports is desirable. Further, this is not a problem that is unique to IoT devices. A similar problem can be observed with other types of wireless devices (e.g., Machine-Type Communications (MTC) devices). This problem and other problems associated with the prior art are addressed in the present disclosure.